I would like to assure the Deputy that, as I said in response to Parliamentary Question No. 104 on 11 December last, I am aware of the concerns of residents in the area surrounding Mountjoy Prison. The number of offenders on renewable temporary release from the prison can vary substantially from week to week and as such the number required to report to the prison on any one day can actually vary between 30 and 50.
The granting of temporary release to offenders is a statutory function of the Minister for Justice under the Criminal Justice Act, 1960 and has been exercised by every incumbent since that Act came into force. In all cases where renewable temporary release is granted, a precondition of the release is that the offender must report back to the prison from which he or she is on release on a specified date to have his or her temporary release renewed. In most cases it is also a condition of renewable temporary release that offenders report at their local Garda station on a daily basis.
Once the new prison accommodation becomes available every effort will be made to reduce the level of renewable temporary release. I would draw the Deputy's attention to the fact that where renewable temporary release is granted to an offender it can be renewed only by the governor of the relevant prison in consultation with the prisons division of my Department.
